Far More Evil
by corruptedchild
Summary: This is the not so happy ending, Link doesn't triumph this time. This is the story of how the hero who never loses hope... finally breaks. This could get ugly and I might change the rating later down the line.


Link had always had his doubts about this journey. After all he was never one to believe in destiny. The one thing he was best at was going along with what everyone says he should do. He didn't believe that it was his birthright of his destiny to carry out these tasks that he was given. He just naturally didn't want to disappoint any one. He didn't want to disappoint Saria, with her high but subtly expressed expectations. He couldn't disappoint Ruto, whom he'd rescued on more than one occasion, and was supposedly betrothed to. He didn't want to disappoint Malon, who entrusted him with Epona, now his most consoling companion. He couldn't disappoint Zelda who bestowed upon him the power to do great things, and cast away the evil of Ganondorfs forces. But he had disappointed all of these people. And now he sits here shackled and stripped of his power with no one to blame but himself.

Chains rattled against the stones of the castle dungeon as link opened his eyes, consciousness fading in. His lips were dry and cracked as his pulled them apart.

His head was pounding, senses blearing in overexposure. He could hear heavy breathing next to him, in his eardrums like a tidal wave. Link brought in his focus. A boy.

Sobs ripped from the boy's mouth as he cursed himself. "It was never supposed to be like this." His black hair hung messy and frayed. Tears slid down the apples of his cheeks and dripped off of his chin onto the stones. "You were supposed to save us all. You were supposed to save me."

He was young. Perhaps not even past his twelfth year, link thought.

"You are him, aren't you? You've finally come?" The boy coughed. "The great Hero?"

"I am." Link winced at the title, feeling hardly qualified given his current predicament of confinement.

"I really hoped. I knew you would come. I prayed to the goddesses that you would come, and cast away that retched desert fiend!" The boy shook against his confines, eyes becoming violent.

Link was sure his expression crinkled into dejection, giving the boy no resolve. He looked into his eyes and saw suffering and tragedy beyond his years. They shined with a fury that held more passion than anyone he had ever looked upon.

"Have you nothing to say now, Hero?" He spat.

"What is your name?" Link asked him simply.

"Kero."He huffed.

"I am Link."

"Link. You have come to relinquish him, have you not?"" Link saw that tiny glimmer of hope that he so despised.

Link was silent. He didn't move, he didn't make a sound. His head stay cast down.

"You don't understand…the things they have done to me." Still link made no sound. He bit his lip to stifle himself. "I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy!"

The heavyset door suddenly swung open and cracked against the stone wall startling the both of them. A man with a gruff appearance stood in the frame. He was tall with a trimmed beard and a harsh scar from ear to mouth. His voice was thundering, and he clearly had an effect on Kero that left him shaking with fear.

"I hear your mouth again, boy!" The man got down on Keros level. "Whining to Mr. Hero over here? Heh."

Kero boldly spat in his face. The man shockingly brought a loud slap to Keros face knocking him onto the stone floor, face bleeding and head pounding.

"Leave him!" Link shouted. He could never be afraid of such a man. No amount of violence would frighten him.

The man scoffed at Link, as he skulked toward him. "Great Hero of Time…" The man padded his hand through Links golden hair before roughly taking hold of it through his fingers, making Link wince in pain. "Are you going to save them all?" The man laughed aloud, "I can only hope that _I _will be the one to present your head to the great king, pretty blond hair and all!"

Link tried to squirm away. He looked down to Keros face. His eyes said _don't fight, don't fight back._

Link was never one to comply, but this was a special case. He stayed silent prepared for the worst. When nothing came, Link opened his eyes. The man left with a crude sneer painted on his face. The door slammed shut with a thundering echo accompanied by the swift 'click' of the lock.

"Why aren't you afraid?" Kero sobbed. "Why don't you cower?"

Link leaned back, skin aching as blood seeped from his confined wrists.

"I have seen far too much to fear someone like him."

"Then you don't know what man is capable of."

Kero was laughing at him. Laughing.

"If you do not escape soon, and very soon… they will take something from you, Hero. And they will keep taking until you have nothing left. Until you are an empty shell. Man is far more evil than any beast…"

"What have they taken?"

Kero made no move to sit up. "Everything."

For some reason Link didn't feel the need to comfort him with empty words.


End file.
